[Tex/LaTex] reason to use \begin{environment} \end{environment} rather than \environment \endenvironment

Question

What reason (other than perhaps being easier for my syntax highlighter to parse) is there to write

\begin{center}
Here is centered text
\end{center}

rather than:

\center
Here is centered text
\endcenter

And likewise for other environments. Does the \begin do any extra funky checks or are they effectively synonymous?

Answer 1

\begin and \end build a group, which can keep settings local. Simply writing \command ... \endcommand doesn't. Such a scope is very important for me, that's why I prefer the \begin ... \end syntax.

Example:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\bfseries Text
\end{center}
text % this is normal font, left aligned as default
\center
\bfseries Text
\endcenter

text % this is still bold! and it's even centered
\end{document}